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The Long Island Nets have officially named Ryan Gomes and Pat Rafferty as assistant coaches. They will join previously announced head coach Ronald Nored on the Long Island bench this season. Gomes' hire has been rumored for more than a month. Raffterty's name is new, but it's not surprising the Nets hired the veteran college coach. Neither Nored nor Gomes has head coaching experience.
Gomes, 32, enters his first year on the sidelines after finishing up an eight-year NBA career. Originally selected with the 50th overall pick in the second round of the 2005 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics, Gomes appeared in 482 games with Boston, Minnesota, L.A. Clippers and Oklahoma City, registering career averages of 10.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 27.9 minutes per game.
The Waterbury, Conn., native also had brief stints with clubs in Spain and Germany and was most recently with the Los Angeles D-Fenders of the NBA D-League for the second half of the 2015-16 season. Along with helping lead the D-Fenders to the D-League Finals, Gomes was named the 2015-16 NBA Development League Impact Player of the Year and received 2015-16 All-NBA D-League Third Team honors. The former Providence College standout was a two-time All-Big East First Team selection and garnered consensus First Team All-American honors in 2004.
Rafferty, 57, joins the Long Island Nets after spending the past three seasons as head coach at Central Wyoming College. Prior to his stint with the Rustlers, he served as the director of basketball operations for UT Arlington (2012-13) and was the head coach at Grayson College for nine seasons (2003-12). At Grayson, Rafferty guided the Vikings to the NJCAA Region V Tournament six times.
In addition to junior college coaching stints at Midland and Casper colleges, Rafferty has previously served as an assistant coach at the University of Louisville under Denny Crum and as both an assistant coach and head coach at Northern Arizona University. He also spent two seasons as a scout for the Minnesota Timberwolves. He also served as an assistant coach the U-19 Team USA basketball team in 2007. That team included Stephen Curry, DeAndre Jordan and Michael Beasley.
Nored, 25, spent two seasons (2013-15) with the Boston Celtics organization before taking the Long Island job earlier this summer. He split time in his first season between being player development coach for the Celtics and an assistant coach for their D-League affiliate, the Maine Red Claws. Prior to the 2014-15 season, the Celtics named Nored as player development director, where he took the lead organizational role for the players’ off-court development, in addition to his on-court coaching duties. Nored spent the 2015-16 season as an assistant coach at Northern Kentucky University.